'We can do something special' - Prudence Sekgodišo sets sights on World Indoors after SA 800m indoor record

With the experience of reaching an Olympic final under her belt, Prudence Sekgodišo is taking it the next level in 2025. South Africa’s 800m queen has picked up where she left off last season by breaking the national indoor record twice in ten days where in winning the second of those two races in 1:59.88, Sekgodiso became the first SA woman to dip under two minutes indoors. Her coach Samuel Sepeng is encouraged by this early season form saying it bodes well for the World Indoor Championships.

After setting a new SA Record, Sekgodišo and her team are targeting success at the World Indoor Championships. Photo Credit: Team SA SASCOC.

"Our goal for 2025 is to do something that we have never done before," said Sepeng. "Being honest with you we didn’t go and take part in the European indoor season with the hope of learning. We went to compete and our first goal was to break the SA record and the second was to break the record with a sub 2 minute performance. That was the target we wanted to achieve."

Achieveing that target meant that the 23-year-old eclipsed the previous SA record of 2:06.05 held by Dominique Scott and now holds two of the fastest times (1:59.88 & 2:02.30) on the SA All-Time 800m indoor list. It leaves Sepeng confident that his star athlete can earn the country’s first World Indoor Championships medal since the 2018 edition in Birmingham where Luvo Manyoga won silver in the long jump.

Sekgodišo embraces coach Samuel Sepeng after a great performance during the 2024 SA track and field season. Photo Credit: Tumelo Mabua.

"We achieved what we have planned. We planned to go to the Worlds. This is something that has been on our minds. The time that we ran last year (1:57.26 to win the Marrakech Diamond League) gives us a slot at the World Indoors. The sub 2 gives give us hope that we can do something special at the World Indoors. So now we go there, we get to the final and once we are in the final, anything can happen," he told #TheTopRunner.

The 20th edition of the World Indoor Athletics Championships take place from 21-23 March in Nanjing, China. Although South Africa was represented by just three athletes at the 2024 edition of the competition, there could be more running in the green and gold this year. In addition to Sekgodišo, Marione Fourie (60m hurdles), Akani Simbine (60m), Zakithi Nene (400m), are just a few of the top SA runners have met the qualification standards.